Two thousand students, never stranded by a strike

Luca leads the international office at one of Rome’s largest universities. Two thousand exchange students a year. Transport strikes are announced in Italian, on news sites and a government calendar. New students miss them. On strike days, they wait at empty bus stops and miss exams, then fill his inbox with appeals. With xMap Flows, Luca built Owl. Every evening at six, Owl reads the Rome news for strikes, watches the city transport agency’s notices, keeps each strike once, writes a clear warning in English, and posts it to the students’ channel. Last month there were three strikes. Each time, every student had a warning in English the evening before, with the hours and the lines. Exam absences on strike days dropped from forty to two. The buses still stop in Rome. Luca’s students just know first.

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